Warriorettes advance to semifinals in regional tournament

The White County Warriorettes advanced to the semifinal round of the Regional Tournament with their 70-51 win over the Lawerence County Wildcats, on Feb. 28.

Halfway through the first quarter, the Warriorettes led Lawerence County by a score of 13-5, and then went on a 9-4 run to make it 22-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Wildcats weren’t giving up and only let White County outscore them by 2 in the second quarter, but the damage had been done. The Warriorettes went into halftime with a commanding 33-18 lead.

Lawerence County came out of the intermission ready to fight for their season. If quarter number three had been its own game, the Wildcats would have taken a narrow victory as they outscored the Warriorettes 19-18 despite. However, White County started the fourth quarter on a 12-2 run to push their lead to 63-39 before easing off the gas a little and coasting to the 70-51 final score that secured their spot in the tournament’s semi-final round, on March 3.

Bella Winningham, who was largely unnoticed on offense in the District Championship, came in with a big game for the Warriorettes, scoring 19 points thanks to the help of four baskets behind the 3-point arc. Gracie Clark when 7 for 15 from the floor on the way to 17 points, while Ava Jones also put up 17. Lakelyn Grasty went three-four-seven to put 7 points on the board, while senior Keely Mullins, seeing her first action as a member of the Warriorettes’ varsity squad, added another 7 points to White County’s side of the board. Kyra Fox hit a solo 3-pointer to round out the Warriorettes’ scoring.

White County pulled down 33 boards, with Clark getting the double-double by being responsible for 11 of those rebounds, eight of them on defense. Winningham narrowly missed out on a double-double of her own, grabbing eight rebounds. Jones had five. Mullins, proving her worth to the Warriorettes in their postseason run, snagged four boards. Fox snagged three rebounds, while Grasty and Billings-Sullivan each had a single rebound.

Proving that winning takes a team effort, the Warriorettes were credited with 17 assists in their first regional tournament game of the year. Fox and Grasty each had five, while Winningham was credited with four assists. Clark had a pair of assists while Mullins had one.

Senior Ava Jones had a massive night on the court as she added four blocks and four steals to her 17 points and five rebounds, proving her leadership on the court is a continued asset for White County.

The Warriorettes took on Franklin County, at 7:30 p.m., March 3, at Cookeville High School. Final results of this match-up will be in the March 7 edition of The Expositor.